I like to test my fasting blood sugar in the morning, especially since I've been fasting four days a week for several weeks. I only started doing this recently and I think it's a good idea for everyone to take a fasting blood sugar at least once a week. I started doing this because of watching a Youtube channel called "Beat Diabetes." The author of this channel, Dennis, is not diabetic but had a dangerous experience with blood sugar that caused him to lose consciousness. This was his first indication that he needed to get his insulin levels working right.
Dennis began to do videos showing his results from testing his blood sugar (or glucose) levels half an hour before and two hours after eating. He chose two hours after eating because that was the point at which his own blood sugar spiked. This showed him what foods spiked his blood sugar above a level that was OK. If the blood glucose level goes over 140 after eating a food, the body has gone into territory that causes glycation damage, and this should be avoided. And yet, it happens all the time, eventually leading to diabetes. I decided this was a good thing to do.
I have been surprised in the last couple of years that my fasting glucose has gone from 88 to 108. The doctor said I shouldn't be concerned, but if one doesn't concern themselves until they've become diabetic it can be harder to turn around. It's not the ideal number. Ideal would be in the 80s. The 90s would be the point I would say to become concerned and improve the diet. Over 124 fasting glucose is considered diabetic.
Crazy me. I read a study on diabetic mice who were fasted four days a week. After six months they were shown to have actually regrown their damaged insulin producing cells in the pancreas and had normal blood sugar levels. Oh? I decided to try this because if adult mice can produce enough neonatal cells to regrow their pancreases, maybe I could regrow tissue from a hip/lower back injury. I have a friend who has been trying stem cell therapy to heal a hip injury. It sounded interesting. The study had shown that what was happening with the mice was that during the four day fast they experienced autophagy, which is a state in which the body cannibalizes old and damaged cells and growths like tumors for protein to run the vital organs and healthy tissues. Then the exciting part, to me anyway, is that during the refeeding days, there was a significant proliferation of stem cells which rushed about restoring cannibalized vital tissues. In the mice, the insulin producing cells that no longer produced insulin had been cannibalized and were replaced by stem cells with brand new, perfect insulin producing cells. The final results of regrowing the pancreas had only been accomplished in the past by organ transplant. All of this magic happened on the refeeding days following a fast. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5357144/?fbclid=IwAR0cgkuyKNMJmcIg0l5jGwxTWaBhz0uPD5F2Z3n8aFxVbhoFXt9GhCg3pZA
Well, just imagine what could be accomplished if one could replace damaged cells in the body. There is all sorts of damage. In fact, with stem cell therapy, one of the problems with trying to heal a certain area like the hip is that the body has different priorities about what the stem cells need to repair. The stem cells are cells that can be turned into any sort of cell and are abundant in the young, but not so much in adulthood. But by fasting the proliferation of stem cells can be increased. So with the wonderful new stem cells the body then begins to repair damaged areas. Two areas that the body typically focuses on are the lungs and the kidneys. So can one regrow damaged lungs and kidneys? I don't know, but it appears so. It takes some effort in the form of fasting.
Another benefit of fasting is anti aging. A lot of people, even doctors, discount the urgency of anti aging, apparently thinking that this is just cosmetic, or that aging is inevitable and pointless to try and conquer. Aging is not just cosmetic, aging is the number one enemy of mankind, eventually killing everyone that isn't run over by a bus. While I don't believe that aging can be eliminated, I believe that aging damage can be vastly slowed, I would estimate by about 50%. I believe this because other studies in mice have shown that mice that are fasted five days a week twice a month lived 50% longer than mice that ate a regular mouse diet everyday. They were also in much better health in every way, especially from degenerative diseases, like diabetes. They continued to have young looking coats. They also lost less muscle.
So I decided that this was for me and I would try fasting for four days a week. Forever? Probably until either my hip and lower back are fixed or else I've tried for six months. This is the beginning of Week 11. I guess 11 out of 26.
Has this been a water only fast? Some weeks yes. After four weeks I had so much trouble with insomnia that I had to revisit either how many days a week I fasted or modify the fast to something I could tolerate. I started adding heavy whipping cream to my coffee, which I had been drinking black. I also started drinking diet sodas. I know. There's nothing redeeming about diet soda except it's such a huge relief to have one. The insomnia has been a lot better. I have kept a journal of my fasting efforts, keeping a log of fasting blood glucose every morning, blood pressure first thing in the morning, ketone levels and weight. I also make a note of changes in pain levels. I had lost my ketone meter, but happened to find it a couple of weeks ago.
So what do ketone levels matter? When one is in ketosis, one is fueling the energy needs of the body with ketones instead of glucose. This is beneficial in a number of ways. It was noticed in the 1920s that many epileptic patients didn't have seizures when they were fasting due to fasting causing ketosis. It was also found that a ketogenic diet, which is low in carbs, had the same effect of eliminating seizures in many patients, also due to the diet putting the patient into ketosis. Does ketosis result in autophagy? I'm guessing yes. Some fasting experts say that any food during a fast "stops the fast." What does that mean? All benefits of a fast are cancelled? The question is, what can one do as far as diet to have the benefits of a fast? What is the point of a complete fast? The main thing I would say is that the benefits of fasting are probably greater in a complete fast, but a partial fast may result in most of the benefits. I think some of the fasting stress outweighs the benefit of a complete fast as far as what I'm trying to accomplish. I'm not trying to accomplish a technical water fast. I'm trying to run my body on ketones, go into autophagy, and induce the proliferation of stem cells during refeeding. I have noticed that a water fast causes ketosis in less time than how long it take to go into ketosis in the weeks that I've had cream in my coffee. I still go into ketosis. Also, the ketosis is deeper and lasts longer during the refeeding days when I water fasted.
I think I should mention that this whole fast idea was modeled on the mouse study. In that study the mice did not water fast four days a week. The mice were given a modified fast, which was about the equivalent of 600 calories a day for humans, the calories coming almost exclusively from fat, with slight amounts of carbs and protein. Protein was particularly restricted.
By keeping a journal and logging my numbers, I have seen clearly what has affected my blood sugar levels and ketone levels. Surprisingly, nothing seems to cause weight loss. At least not much. Because I gobble on refeeding days? I don't seem to, but maybe.
What has been accomplished after 10 weeks? May I say it's been slow going? I thought I was making progress with the issue of hip/back pain, and was zooming around pain free for a little while. But suddenly I had a horrible setback and could barely move for a few days. I even resorted to a walker and crutches. All my effort seemed to have been for nothing. I was right back to square one. Well, after that, my little boat seemed to stop rocking, and I honestly felt like there was significant improvement. At the same time I started doing exercises for sciatica and herniated disk. So is that really what caused the improvement? I don't know, but either way it's been a long time since I've been able to walk this well or have as little pain. If I were to put a number on it, I would say there has been about a 35% reduction in pain.
What other things are changed? I suppose I've lost around twelve pounds. My weight changes so much depending of whether it's a fasting day or a refeeding day it's hard to say. I've noticed that my skin has improved. How so? One of the biggest differences is even skin tone. It's amazing how much some small thing like uneven skin tone can detract from the appearance of the skin. Besides being uneven, there is less redness, which was probably due to general inflammation. So it's safe to say the level of overall inflammation is down significantly. Supposedly, inflammation, along with glycation, which is damage from too much blood sugar, are two big drivers of aging. And general damage from aging makes just about everything worse. I had a chronic slight cough, which has gone away. A swollen gland healed up. One of my shoulders has a better range of motion. A few scars are less noticeable. I have more energy.
I really thought my fasting blood sugar would go back to the 80s. Some days it does, but mostly on days that I'm eating it's around 101, not even below 100. I had a big surprise this morning. My blood sugar was 122! Cheesh. What happened?
Yesterday was the last wonderful day of eating for the next four days. I ate a big steak thinking it would bulk up my protein supply so my body would have something to do its mighty repair work with. But the body can only use so much protein at one time and the rest it uses for energy, turning it into glucose, and from there storing it as fat. Probably because of being in ketosis my metabolism decided what I really needed was glucose, so a lot of the steak was converted to glucose. I had tested my glucose about an hour after eating. It had gone from 87 to 105, which was more than I hoped, but it sure wasn't as if I had candy bars for dinner. I hadn't even felt much like eating, but thought probably I should. Still, why didn't insulin keep the glucose levels in better check?
So that's my take on my progress on the four day a week fast.
